


Excerpt from a Member of the Colony

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [10]
Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Fluff, Genderfluid Character, M/M, Spoilers for FF7 Remake, Spoilers for the end of FF7 in the author notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23740072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: A page of a diary taken from the wreckage of the Honey Bee Inn.
Relationships: Andrea Rhodea/Cloud Strife
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 6
Kudos: 104





	Excerpt from a Member of the Colony

**Author's Note:**

> Really, the summary is 'A page of a diary taken from the wreckage of the Honey Bee Inn after Meteorfall.', but while that's probably not a spoiler at this point, I wanted to keep it out of the summary just in case.
> 
> Warning for a potential trigger in the end notes.
> 
> #Diary format  
> #Outside POV of Andrea and Cloud's relationship,  
> #The workers at the Honey Bee Inn are all family and you'll never convince me otherwise

Heya, diary. Guess it’s been a long time since I wrote in you, huh? Sorry. Between the shows and the clients, I’ve been real busy. 

Speaking of that, I’ve got some good news! The clients aren’t as bad as I thought they would be. You know, I told you that I was kinda scared, coming here to Wall Market? Everyone hears horror stories about this place. 

But it’s actually pretty nice here at the Honey Bee Inn! Andy takes real good care of us Honeygirs and Honeyboys. He watches out for us, he really does. Even checks up on us if there’s a client that’s powerful enough to make us scared of saying anything. Makes sure that we’re okay and not just being silent to not get in trouble. Even when it was really, really important people. He’s gone head to head with some crazy powerful people; powerful enough to make all of us nervous, not just the Honeygirl or Honeyboy involved. But he’s always somehow made sure it got worked out okay. I don’t know how he does it sometimes, and I _really_ don’t know what we’d do without him. Or without each other, for that matter. I don’t think we’d make it near as well as we do if we weren’t all a kind of family here. _Small doodle of a group of bees standing together, all holding hands._

That’s why I’m writing in you again, you know? Andy’s always done so much for our family, but I don’t know if he’s really ever looked out for himself so much. Sure, he’s built himself a bit of an empire here, and he’s one of the most successful men this town has ever seen. But a lot of that’s just been work, really. Him running the Inn, and taking meetings from the crazy large number of folks that want a piece of him and his time, and training to keep himself in peek physical condition, and looking after all of us in the meantime. 

Even in the few spare moments he schedules, usually that’s just him attending the events he’s expected to as one of the Trio. 

He’s never even asked one of us to help him relieve some stress! Says it would be a huge conflict of interest, and he’s probably right about that. Still didn’t keep some of the girls and boys from offering, but… he’s been pretty strict about it. I mean, he’s taken the occasional lover here and there from outside our Inn, but… it’s always been fairly rare, and never for more than a night. I don’t think he’s ever even let himself get that close to anyone who isn’t part of our family for years. There’s the guys at the gym, but… they’re practically extended family themselves. And Andy’s never slept with them, either. 

That’s why we were all so surprised when he brought Cloud and his friend’s home. Andy’s _never_ done anything like that, not even once. Not for someone that he didn’t plan on joining the Inn afterward. And don’t get me wrong; the rest of them are real sweet. I really like Barret, Tifa and Wedge. But he really did it for Cloud, and everyone knows it. It’s something else. Not that I blame him for being unable to resist that hair and those eyes! Cloud’s really cute. _Small drawing of a human/chocobo hybrid peering up from the page with gigantic, shining eyes._

Cloud’s a doll, really. He always lets us girls get away with teasing him and making him blush, and shows that he cares in some of the sweetest, kindest ways. That gruff, hesitant persona is nonsense most of the time; you show him a little kindness despite it and he really opens up and becomes willing to do just about anything he can to help you. He’s a great listener, too. Some of the girls have told me that they told him things that they never would have told anyone else. He doesn’t always have the perfect responses, but it’s so sweet, the way he tries. 

And I’ve never seen a man look quite so beautiful in a dress. He’s a real stunner. Though I’m not sure he is a man when he’s all dressed up like that? I think he might be gender fluid, at least partially. One of the Honeyboys referred to Cloud using female terms while she was wearing a dress once, and the way she smiled afterward was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. It was just like _small drawing of stars and sparkles on the page_ really amazing. Definitely one of those sights you'll treasure for the rest of your life, you know? 

He corrected them when they referred to him as a girl while he was back in his usual armor, though, so I guess I’ll keep using male pronouns to refer to him unless he’s all dressed up. Until he tells me different, at least. 

The most important thing about Cloud, though? He makes Andy real happy. Andy’s smiled, really smiled and not just stage smiled, more in the past few days that Cloud’s been here than he has in the past five years. He’s just kind of been… revolving around Cloud ever since he got here. Making sure that he and his friends are settling in okay and have everything they need, making sure that Cloud’s getting proper rest, cancelling meetings to get the chance to talk to and spend more time with Cloud. He even got Cloud to get dressed up (that time I was talking about before, when I said Cloud might be gender fluid) and practice with him again. Said that one of the Shinra executives was attending the next show, and Cloud being there would be a good chance to get some info from them. I think he was being honest about that, but I’m also pretty sure that Andy really wanted to see Cloud all dolled up again. _Small drawing of a beautiful girl in a mask and an elaborate gown with a well-dressed man standing beside her and staring at her with hearts in his eyes._

He missed one of his meetings with the rest of the Trio to do it, too, and boy was Madam M mad about that. But I think that she was more worried than anything else. Like I said before, Cloud and his group? They’re real, real sweet. Some of the best people that I’ve ever met! I really like them. All of us do. 

But none of us are oblivious to the dangers they bring with them. Andy let us know about the risks, because he said we deserved to know who he was bringing home. Those four are tied up in things that are really bad, like _seriously_ bad. All those people that died in Sector Seven? That was part of Shinra trying to hurt Cloud and his friends. 

Annie still hasn’t stopped crying about the Plate collapse since it happened. She had a little sister there, one that she used to send money to whenever she could. The rest of us have done our best to comfort her, but I don’t know how well we’ve been doing with how worried we are ourselves. I didn’t mention it before, diary, but we are all real scared. We don’t want the same thing happening to us. 

But none of us told Andy that we wanted him to kick Cloud’s group out. And that’s because we all care about Andy, so, so much. He’s saved all of our lives, at one time or another. Saved some of us more than once. Given the choice, I’d rather not die; but for Andy’s happiness? I’ll take the risk that I might. All us Honeygirls and Honeyboys got together and we all agreed on that. That we’d risk it all to see him smiling like he has been. Maybe we’d even do it for Cloud and the rest, if we knew them better. 

But for right now? We’re definitely doing it for Andy’s sake.

That’s why I’m writing in you again, diary. I don’t know for sure how things are going to go. I don’t know if Shinra’s going to find out that we’re harboring fugitives from them, or what they’ll do if it is found out. I think that Andy and even Cloud and his friends are going to do their best to make sure that it’s not discovered, but… I’m a little scared, I’ll admit it. 

But it’s worth it. Not matter what happens, that’s what I’ll remember until the day I die. The happiness that Cloud is bringing to Andy, just by _being_ here, is worth it. 

And that’s partially why I’m writing this down. So that if something awful happens to us and Andy makes it through, if he happens to find this one day? He’ll know that it wasn’t his fault. That this was a choice that we all knowingly made for ourselves, because we all know what might happen and that he’d do the same for us if it really came down to it. 

So hey, Andy? If you are reading this? Don’t cry, okay? Know that the past few days of your happiness have been some of the best any of us have ever experienced. We’re all so, so glad that you’re happy, honey. Don’t forget that, huh?

We love you. 

_The rest of the page and the rest of the book is blank._

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This fic contains potential character death of the OC, but it's really up to you to decide if she had died or made it out okay. My mind personally keeps going back and fourth on the matter, so... either option is equally correct by my headcanon. 
> 
> Also: next part is back in Andrea's POV, and then the part after that is the conclusion of this series. I'm kind of sad and kind of happy about that. I'm happy I'll be able to finish this series soon, but I'll also miss it. Still, these are definitely not the only Andrea/Cloud stories I'll write, so it's not a complete goodbye, at least.


End file.
